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Former Chester County man settles civil suit for $1 million in connection with shooting neighbor

By CARL HESSLER JR. Journal Register

Updated:
08/10/2012 07:07:49 PM EDT

NORRISTOWN -- Having previously served time in state prison for shooting his neighbor at an Upper Merion store, a former Chester County man has reached a $1 million civil settlement with the victim.

Philip Costantini, 84, formerly of Knob Lane, in the Valley Forge section of Schuylkill Township, entered into a consent judgment, in the amount of $1 million, with shooting victim Douglas Lawson and his wife, Sarah, of Knob Lane, according to a Montgomery County Court order.

The consent judgment, entered in Lawson's favor and against Costantini, was approved by Judge Thomas P. Rogers on Thursday. The settlement was reached after only one witness, Lawson, testified during the first day of a civil jury trial that began earlier this week. The jurors were then dismissed.

"This consent judgment shall operate as a final adjudication of all issues... ," Rogers wrote in the court order.

The $1 million judgment is comprised of $250,000 in compensatory damages and $750,000 in punitive damages, according to the court order.

In November 2004, Costantini, then 76, was sentenced to three-to-six-years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted voluntary manslaughter in connection with a Feb. 5, 2004, incident during which Costantini shot Lawson, then 42, in the abdomen when the two encountered one another in an aisle of the King of Prussia Home Depot store. Authorities claimed the shooting followed a long-running dispute between the neighbors over an addition Lawson wanted to build to his home.

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During the sentencing hearing, Costantini told Judge William R. Carpenter, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter, "It's unfortunate this happened and the incidents preceding it. What I did sir, was strictly out of a momentary reaction to fear."

Under state law, by pleading guilty to the charge, Costantini admitted that while he may have believed that he was in danger and believed the shooting was justified, legally it was an unreasonable belief.

Court records indicate Costantini, whose most recent address was in Somerset County, was released from prison in January 2009, after serving about five years of the sentence.

In 2006, Lawson, who had been Costantini's neighbor between 2002 and 2004, filed a civil suit, seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages, against Costantini. Lawson, who suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen, required emergency surgery, seven separate lengthy inpatient hospital admissions with four separate operations, according to the suit.

Lawson, the suit alleged, also suffered "severe and permanent shock to his system as well as psychological trauma, all of which caused and continues to cause great pain and suffering...," the suit alleged. The suit maintained Lawson also incurred medical expenses, economic loss, lost wages and permanent impairment of his earning capacity.

Costantini and Lawson had been embroiled in a dispute since March 2003 about an addition that Lawson wanted to build to his home, prosecutors had alleged.

The pair crossed paths at 10 a.m. Feb. 5, 2004, at The Home Depot and a verbal confrontation ensued. The altercation escalated, with Costantini brandishing a semiautomatic handgun from the waistband of his pants and shooting Lawson, detectives said. Costantini did have a permit to carry that weapon.

Lawson suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach and was hospitalized at Hahnemann University Hospital for treatment.

Responding to a 911 call, police found Costantini in the carpet section of the store and took him into custody.

During his 2004 sentencing hearing, Costantini, a World War II veteran, told the judge he always believed he and his wife would peacefully spend their "golden years" together in their Chester County neighborhood. Costantini, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and once worked as a probation officer in New Jersey, told the judge he was married more than 40 years, served with the Coast Guard during World War II and ate cornflakes for dinner while working his way through college on the G.I. Bill, earning $75 a month.